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Mitt Romney is a Dangerous Idiot

A few weeks ago I wrote a column with the tongue-in-cheek title “The Debate the Ended the Election”. It addressed the wildly over-hyped first debate in which Mitt Romney looked “presidential” and President Obama looked tired. I highlighted the fact that the map still favored the president and, more importantly, that Mitt Romney was still a dangerous idiot (again here and here).

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy the “dangerous” and “idiot” labels deserve further investigation.

Dangerous

In June 2011, during a televised CNN Republican nomination debate, Mitt Romney said that the United States could not afford the cost of running the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In the midst of tornados, Atlantic hurricanes, and drought the Republicans were arguing that FEMA should not exist. Mitt Romney doubled down and said that it was “immoral” to use federal funds on disaster relief when the job should be given the states or even the private sector.

A former governor who has received significant FEMA assistance in his own state was honestly arguing that states ought to deal with disasters on their own. He further stated that giving the task to the private sector would be an even better solution. This man is dangerous.

The entire reason that FEMA exists is because states are not good at coordinating with one another particularly after their infrastructure has been paralyzed by natural disaster. In fact, the entire reason the United States Constitution exists is because states are not good at coordinating with each other on virtually anything. The expressed powers of the federal government exist because sometimes the states need assistance.

Hypothetical-President Romney wants to expand the defense budget by $2 trillion but shave the paltry $13.5 billion annual allocation to FEMA? Is he out of his mind? Has nearly half of the American electorate lost all sense and reason?

Is this what the pacifist preacher who told his flock to pay their taxes, give up their worldly possessions, and invest in collective/universal success and prosperity would have wanted?

Idiot

It should be no surprise that a self-important, mega-rich hack like Mitt Romney thinks that people hit by an “act of god” should just drift in the breeze. Mitt Romney’s idea of self-sacrifice is shouting down protestors, his own classmates, and gleefully sending them to their deaths while he petitioned to defer his “service” into a multi-year vacation in France.

How can someone born into ultimate privilege chide throngs of desperate Americans in their time of need?

Mitt Romney has never had to struggle a day in his life. He thinks that his easy-going existence is the result of his own hard work, rather than the status he was born into.

Romney has argued in favor of privatizing disaster relief. Imagine watching as a Blackhawk crewman ropes down to a rooftop to save a waiting family but first calls in their insurance numbers and makes sure the claim will be covered. Romney already seems to think that going to the emergency room is good enough for those who can’t receive actual healthcare… I wonder what sort of assistance thousands of starving and homeless flood victims could expect.

The private sector is profit-driven. The private insurance industry does all it can to cover as little as possible to save money for its own bottom line and eventual executive compensation.

A businessman like Romney ought to know that a private disaster relief agency would do everything it could to avoid costly rescue operations. In 1985 Mitt Romney said that his goal at Bain Capital was to “harvest” companies for profits. Imagine the cost savings from choosing not to save thousands of trapped civilians.

Do you really want Mitt Romney to be your CEO-in-Chief?

America is a country, not a company. Sometimes you pay taxes for roads but you don’t drive on them. Sometimes you pay taxes for hurricane relief but you live in Nebraska.

You don’t have to vote for President Obama on November 6th. There are nearly 200 million Americans who are eligible for write-in and every single one of them deserves your vote more than Willard Mitt Romney.